Where to Find Free & Low Cost Concerts Near You

If you enjoy live music concerts & festivals — no matter what genre you prefer — chances are your appetite for concerts may be larger than your budget for concert tickets. In my area we are blessed to have the Britt Festival – all summer major artists come to the Rogue Valley and perform on the beautiful hillside in Jacksonville Oregon. Concerts include both classical and pop and are very reasonably priced – nothing like what you might pay in a major city.

The good news is that almost every community has a wealth of concerts that are free to attend. In most communities, the concert season lasts all year — but free concerts are especially plentiful in the summer.

Here are some places to check out for information about what’s free and available near you.

Local Venues & Organizations

Start with music venues including pavilions, concert halls, and arenas in your town. In addition to high-priced national touring acts, many venues feature local talent for free — or at a very low cost.

For example, check out the Fraze Pavillion in Kettering, Ohio. Like most summer venues, the Fraze presents top acts like Earth, Wind, and Fire, Alan Jackson, and Chicago with tickets going anywhere from $20 to $60 and more.

However, the Fraze also has “$2 Tuesdays,” “$5 Fridays,” and, most important of all, an entire series titled Free @ Fraze. Venues with a community connection (Fraze is run by the city of Kettering) are the ones most likely to sponsor free events.

Parks & Rec

Speaking of the community connection, check out the Parks & Recreation Department of your town or nearest city. Almost all of them sponsor concerts and performances — many of them totally free – in city run parks and at other locations throughout the community.

As you might expect in city of its size, New York City’s parks and recreation department hosts free concerts almost every day of the year.

Festivals

Recurring or special event festivals are another source of free entertainment. Festivals are known for free music offerings — even if the festival isn’t about music. Whether it’s the Popcorn Festival, River Festival, or Strawberry Jam Festival, chances are there are free music events going on.

If your community has special events to celebrate national holidays, like the 4^th of July, they too probably include a wealth of music events.

Military Installations

Is there an Air Force base, Army training center, or Coast Guard station near you? If so, check for free music events featuring the base band or singing group. There are fewer military music groups than there were years ago, but larger installations still have them and they are never allowed to charge admission.

Major military organizations like the U.S. Army Band have websites advertising their performances worldwide.

Churches

Churches, in general, are repositories of free music events. Many, but not all, of these concerts are religious in nature. Most are free — or feature a free-will offering. Others, depending on the performers, may actually sell tickets. Check listings or call the church to find out for sure. Don’t assume, just because it’s at a church that it is free.

Websites

Finally, we get to our old friend, the “web search.” You could, of course, just type in “free concert” followed by the name of the area where you live. Chances are that will, at the very least, provide you with a list of events that are about to occur.

There are also websites that specialize in listing free concert events:

One of the largest and most well know is Levitt Pavilions. Quite simply, Levitt Pavilions is a national network of outdoor venues that present free concerts. Currently there are six open venues in Westport, Connecticut; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Memphis, Tennessee; Arlington, Texas; Pasadena, California; and Los Angeles, California, with two additional venues planned for Houston, Texas and Denver, Colorado.

MyFreeConcert only has listings for New York City and Austin, Texas (with plans to expand to Chicago and Los Angeles soon). If you live near any of those cities, it might be worth checking the site from time to time — especially if you follow any of the groups or performers featured there.